The present invention finds use in all medical establishments, such as hospitals, clinics, consulting offices, etc., that use surgical scalpels and are currently required to destroy them after one use.
The Mexican Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources and Fisheries (SEMARNAP) issued an Official Mexican Standard (NOM-087-ECOL-1995), establishing requisites for the treatment of biological or infectious material, including surgical scalpels. At present, major medical facilities have high-capacity incinerators that are used to destroy only organic biological or infectious material, whereas items such as scalpels are, in the best of cases, disposed of with conventional garbage. The standard indicates that surgical scalpels must be treated by mechanical, physical or chemical means (physical means include combustion or incineration), so that they are completely destroyed and unrecognizable and all scrap resulting from their destruction is rendered completely sterile. To prevent reuse of surgical scalpels and subsequent transmission of infections, currently exceedingly large and heavy incinerators are currently used in England, France, Germany, and the United States. These, however, bear no resemblance whatsoever to this particular invention. In fact, the only precedent for this small, portable surgical scalpel incinerator that currently exists is in Mexico, also invented by myself (File No. 9800751, Jan. 27, 1998). However, this new device is completely new and different in both size and design.
Incineration of surgical scalpels is obligatory for all medical establishments in Mexico. Large hospitals and clinics and major medical centers, have the financial means to purchase high-capacity incinerators capable of processing all kinds of infectious or biological waste in large volumes, which are costly to acquire, operate and maintain, while smaller medical establishments such as clinics, laboratories, consulting offices, etc. are unable to purchase such units, The use of large incinerators to destroy scalpels requires that procedures be established to collect, store, handle and transport them, with the risk, in the intervening time, of puncture or cut wounds, as well as the hazard of contagion, independently of the costs the necessary administrative organization entails. In order to reduce these risks, and to enable institutions to incinerate all surgical scalpels immediately after their first use, I undertook to invent a device specifically for incineration of surgical scalpels, using an electromechanism as its main internal component to achieve incineration, in combination with a transformer, an electronic circuit, and electrical elements that satisfy the requisites established by the aforementioned regulation, in addition to offering the benefits of reliable incineration, sterilization of scrap, ease of handling, simple operation, low operating and maintenance costs, reasonable price, small size, and portability.
My invention meets all the requisites and offers all the additional benefits, mentioned above, as surgical scalpels can be incinerated immediately and the unit can be set up for use in all types of medical facilities, including operating theaters.